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7 Afghans Released from Guantánamo Say They Saw Abuse

New York TimesBy Carlotta GallFebruary 9, 2006

LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan,
Feb. 9 — Seven Afghans have been released from American detention in Guantánamo
Bay, Cuba, and were freed in Kabul today, where they spoke to reporters,
contending that they had witnessed abuse and desecration of the Koran.

The prisoners, ranging in age from about 30 to about 50, come from the
southern and eastern provinces of Helmand, Uruzgan, Khost and Paktika. All had
been detained for three years or more, following the American intervention in
Afghanistan in late 2001. Dressed in white T-shirts and jeans, the prisoners
looked pale but otherwise healthy.

The men said they were aware of a widespread hunger strike among prisoners
but that they had not taken part. One said he had joined in a protest against
desecration of the Koran by prison guards.

The chief of the Afghan government commission for reconciliation,
Sebaghatullah Mojadeddi, greeted the prisoners and told them they were free to
return to civilian life. He contended that some had committed no crime and that
others who might have been guilty of wrongdoing had been detained longer than
they should have been.

The former Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, Abdul Salaam Zaeef, who was
himself detained in Guantánamo for four years and released last year, also
greeted the prisoners and said it should be the government's priority to secure
the release of the remaining 97 Afghans in Guantánamo.

"They are mostly innocent and were not related to the Taliban and Al Qaeda,"
Mr. Zaeef contended. "There is no court there, no law and no charges."

Reporters were allowed to question the men. Sharbat Khan, 36, from Khost,
said he had been held for three and a half years. "The behavior of the Americans
was not good in the beginning," he said. "They insulted the Holy Koran and all
of us prisoners started a demonstration and they used a kind of gas to make us
calm down."

Another prisoner from Uruzgan province, Khudaidad, a laborer who uses only
one name, said his American guards would withhold medicines at times, and would
sometimes serve bad food as a form of punishment.

Khan Zaman, 45, from the eastern province of Khost, who said he spent four
years and three months in custody, said he knew about the current hunger strike
but had not taken part. He said that Afghan prisoners were not participating in
the hunger strike.